1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a backlight assembly provided with a light guiding plate (“LGP”) and a display device provided with the backlight assembly, and more particularly, to a backlight assembly provided with a modified LGP capable of not using optical sheets and the display device provided with the backlight assembly.
2. Description of Related Art
Recently, due to developments in semiconductor technology, demand is increasing for small-sized and light-weight flat panel display having improved performance characteristics.
Among the flat panel displays, a liquid crystal display (“LCD”) has a smaller size, a lighter weight, and consumes less power than existing cathode ray tubes (CRT). Due to these characteristics, LCDs are widely used with almost all information processing apparatuses that require display devices.
In a typical LCD, a molecular alignment of liquid crystal molecules is changed by applying a voltage thereto. Such changes in molecular alignment affect optical characteristics of a liquid crystal cell, such as birefringence, optical rotary power, dichroism, optical scattering, etc., are converted into a visual change. Thus, the typical LCD is a light-receiving type of display device that displays information using optical modulation of the liquid crystal cells.
A display device, such as an LCD, receives a light from a backlight assembly and displays an image on the display panel. The backlight assembly includes a lamp, an LGP, and a plurality of optical sheets. The LGP guides light emitted from the lamp through the optical sheets to improve brightness. The light with improved brightness is then supplied to the display panel.
Convention optical sheets of the backlight assembly include a diffusing sheet, two prism sheets, and a reflecting sheet. The diffusing sheet uniformly diffuses light passing through the LGP, and the prism sheets improve a viewing angle while improving brightness at the front side by gathering light. A reflecting sheet covers a plurality of prism shaped protrusions that are formed on the surface of the prism sheet.
Since a plurality of optical sheets are used in a display device, a number of processes for manufacturing and assembling the optical sheets are performed, which increases production cost. In particular, a small-sized device, such as a cellular phone or a notebook computer, which consumers want to be slim and light weight, is difficult to produce because a plurality of optical sheets cannot be used without increasing the width and/or weight of the device. Further, assembling a plurality of optical sheets together at once is difficult and light loss increases as the light passes through a plurality of optical sheets.